Morgan Jones

Future Aesthetics: The Sublime In Virtual Reality

What is the sublime? Transcending beyond the beautiful and the picturesque, the sublime encapsulates a quality of immeasurable greatness tinged with terror. An experience with the sublime strikes astonishment in humankind. Man feels miniscule in the face of its infinite vastness which influences a sense of humility to arise in the soul. This thesis project seeks to trace the evolution of the philosophical aesthetic concept of the sublime as it has been represented in art history across mediums of immersion from 19th century landscape painting to postmodern virtual reality. The visual component associated with this project is a 360 degree computer-generated landscape scene directly inspired by the works of Hudson River School painters. The rendered world was created with Blender, an open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset.

Advisors:
Michael Leja (ARTH)

Gregory Vershbow (VLST)